Coil handling apparatus



A ril 21, 1953 J. 5. BURGE ETAL 2,635,767

COIL HANDLING APPARATUS Original Filed March ll 1947 4 Sheet s-Sheet 194;- w u i I40 /NVE'NTORJ 5% .f 4

$ AT OQNE Ks April 21, 1953 J. s. BURGE ET AL 5 COIL HANDLING APPARATUSOriginal Filed March 11, 1947 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 452i Arron/vars April 21,1953- J. SJBURGE ETAL COIL HANDLING APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 3.

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,April 21, 1953 J. S. BURGE ETAL COIL HANDLING APPARATUS Original F'iledMarch 11, 1947 'my e 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 //v VENTd Patented Apr. 21, 1953COIL HANDLING APPARATUS James S. Burge and Richard M. Goodwin, Anderson,and Hilton J. McKee, Middletown, Ind., assignors to General MotorsCorporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Originalapplication March 11, 1947, Serial No. 733,758. Divided and thisapplication June 23, 1950, Serial No. 169,935

6 Claims.

This application is a division of application Ser. No. 733,758, filedMarch 11, 1947, which discloses a machine for winding a coil on one of aplurality of forms supported by a rotary conveyor or dial which isindexed to carry the coil to a taping station where tape is applied tothe coil and to carry the taped coil to a station where it is ejectedand is received by a stacking rack.

The object of the invention claimed in the present application is toprovide for the stacking of a predetermined number of coils upon astacking rack and for replacement automatically of a full rack by anempty one. To accomplish this, the machine provides a rotary conveyor ordial carrying a plurality of coil receiving racks, one of which islocated in a position to receive coils as they are ejected from coilholders at the ejecting station and a mechanism for automaticallyindexing the stacking rack conveyor when the rack at the ejectingstation has received a certain number of coils.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention isclearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary front view of the machine showing the coilstacker, the point in section being taken on line I-I of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a view in the direction of arrow 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig, 3 is a fragmentary plan view of the machine showing the coil formdial and a portion of the coil ejector.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the stacker rack dial and supporting framelooking in the direction of arrow 4 of Fig. 1.

Fig, 5 is a section view on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a stacking rack.

Fig. 7, drawn to a larger scale than Fig. 5, is a sectional view on line'I--'I thereof.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view on line 8-8 of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a front view of mechanism for operating the ejector andstacker.

Fig. 10 is a view on line I0I0 of Fi 9.

Referring to Figs. 9 and 10, a power driven gear I30 is connectible bya, clutch I with a shaft I34 which is connected with a sprocket I36connected 5 by a chain I40 with a sprocket I4I connected with a shaftI42 which drives a stacker operating mechanism to be described. Acoupling I41 connects gear I30 with a shaft I48 which drives a cam I53engaging a roller I80 carried by a lever I8I pivoted on a bracket I 5911and urged down by a spring I8 Ia and connected by an adjustable link I82with a lever I83 fixed to a shaft I84 journalled in a bracket I85attached to a bar I85a suspended from a table IOI.

Following the indexing of a dial D (Fig. 3) which carries coil forms andholders 350 successively to a winding station W, a taping station T andan ejecting station E, clutch I is tripped automatically as disclosed inapplication Ser. No. 733,758 to effect operation of a coil ejector toremove the coil from the form 350 at station E. The coil ejectorcomprises fingers 000 (Fig. 9) operated by shaft I journalled inbearings supported by housing 902 carried by bracket 903. Shaft 90I isconnected by arm 904 and link I81 with arm I83 operated by shaft 908.Shafts I84 and 908 are connected by a torque-limiting clutch comprisingparts 905, 906 urged together by a spring 901. Clutch part 905 andbracket I85 support shaft 908 in alignment with shaft I84. If ejectionof a coil at station E is abnormally resisted, the clutch part 908 willmove right (Fig. 9) against the pressure of spring 901 to disconnectshaft 908 from shaft I84 and to cause flange 9 of clutch part 906 tooperate a switch SW6 to cause the machine to stop as described inapplication Ser. No. 733,753.

The ejected coils fall around the detachable head 930 of a rack 93I(Fig, 6) having parallel rods 932 which support the head 930 and whichare attached to plates 933, 934 and 935. A tube 936 is attached toplates 934 and 935 and plate 935 has a hole 931. There are eight ofthese racks or coil stackers 93I and they are supported by a dial 940carrying pins 94I (Fig. 5) each of which is received by a tube 935, andstuds 942 each of which is received by a hole 937 in the plate 935. Inthis way the racks 93f are located on the dial so that the noses 930a ofthe heads 930 face outwardly. Therefore, when a rack 93I arrives at theejecting station its head 930 will be located so as to receive the coilsas they are ejected.

Each rack 93I is intended to receive a predetermined number of coils.When the rack is full it is moved away from the ejecting station and anempty rack is brought to the ejecting station. The full rack is removedand replaced by an empty one. Therefore the dial 940 is caused to moveintermittently after a predetermined number of operations of themachine. For this purpose the dial 940 is supported by a shaft 943 (Fig.5) journaled in bearings 944 and 945 supported by the cover 946 of a box941.enc1osingthe dialpicks up a roller 952 carried by a lever 953'pivoted on a screw 954 and causes the lever to move to position 953.Lever 953 carries a pivot 955 for a pawl 956 engageable with a ratchet95-? attached to shaft 943. plates 958 located above and below theratchet 951 so that the ratchet may support the" pawl vertically. Aspring 959 connecting the pawl 956 and the lever 953 urges the pawltoward the ratchet. The function of cam 95! is to move the pawl so thatit will pick up a tooth on the ratchet. The movement of the ratchetclockwise is eifected by a spring 968 connecting the lever 953 with ascrew 96! threaded through the box 941-and lockedin adjusted position bya nut 962. The spring 969efiects one-eighth revolution of the dial,motion of lever 953 clockwise being limited by a screw 9S3 attached to abracket 964 and locked in adjusted position by a nut 9S5. Overtravel ofthe dial 94ii-is prevented by a lever 967 pivoted at 968 on a block 959and which is caused to move into the position shown in Fig. 8 in orderto receive the lower end of a pin 9M on the dial. This position of lever95"! is effected by clockwisemovement of lever 953 which picks up awasher 919' surrounding a rod 915 passing througha hole in the lever 953and causes said washer to push against a spring 9'52 and the latteragainst a-flange N3 of rod all and causes the rod to push against a pin9M pivotally connecting the rod with lever'96l. Thus the lever 96'! isforced into blocking position by yielding pressure. Itsblocking positionis indicated diagrammatically in Fig. 4. The rebounding of thedial D andpin 94! counterclockwise from the lever 96! is prevented by theengagement of another pin 94] witha lever M5 pivotally supported at 916by a bracket 97'! and urged into rebound blocking position by a spring918.

During counterclockwise movement of lever 953 by cam 95!,lever 953engages a nut 989 locked on shaft 9-! l by a nut 93!. This is caused tomove left (Figs. 7 and 8) to rotate lever 96! away from the'pin 9M sothat the dial canturn again. The indexing of dial 940 into a newposition starts before lever ear is moved again into position forblocking the next pin 94! which comes around. The timing between cam 95]and the main cam shaft Hi8 (Fig. 9) is such that the shaft I48 makes,for example, 60 revolutions for each revolution of cam shaft 959.Therefore the dial 940 indexes automatically whenever a rack at theejecting .station receives, for ex-" ample, 60 coils. When the rack QSIis full and is removed from the turntable 9MB, its head 93!] is removedand stored at the machine. Removal of the head 930 exposes an eye 933aattached to plate 933. The full rack can be attached to a chain conveyorhaving a hook for engaging the eye 933a. I

While the embodimentof the present invention as herein disclosed,constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other formsmight be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. Coil handling apparatus for use with acoilwinding machine, saidapparatus comprising a conveyor having holders for supporting coils,means for indexing the conveyor intermittently- The pawl 958 carries tomove coils successively to an ejecting station, means at the ejectingstation for removing the coil from its holder while at the ejectingstation and allowing the coil to gravitate from the holder, a stackerdial, a'pluralityofvertically disposed racks supported by the stackerdial and which are positioned by the indexing of the stacker 'dialsuccessively in alignment with the coil ejector to receive the coilwhich gravitates from the coil-holder, a stacker dial indexer, amechanism functioning in response to completion of indexing the conveyorto operate the coil ejector and means operated by said mechanism forcausing operation of the stacker dial indexer after a certain number ofoperations of the coil ejector.

2. A machine according to claim 1 in which the stacker dial indexer isoperated by a spring, and in which a rotary cam is driven by the ejectoroperating mechanism at reduced speed so that it rotates onceduringace'rtain number of ejector operations'and in which the camoperates during one revolution to stress the spring and then release it.

3. A stacker comprising a conveyor for supporting racks which receivearticles ejected from a machine which produces them, means for indexingthe conveyor and comprising a rotatable ratchet, a pawl, spring meansfor causing the pawl to contact the ratchet, a cam follower connectedwith the pawl, an operating shaft, a cam driven thereby and engageablewith the follower and contoured to move the pawl back along the ratchetto a ratchet-tooth engaging position and then to move away from the pathof movement of the follower, anda spring connected with the follower,said spring being stressed during operation of the'cam to back the pawland being released when the cam leaves the follower to effect movementof the pawl to rotate the ratchet.

4. A stacker according to claim 3 in which the' conveyor is providedwith a series of equally spaced stop members projecting therefrom, astop element supported for movement into and out of the path of movementof a conveyor stop member and means connected with the follower forcausing the stop element to move into the out of the path of movement ofa conveyor stop member and means connected with the follower for causingthe stop element to move into the path of movement of a conveyor stopmember as the pawl closely-approaches the end of its ratchet turningmovement, said means providing a-lost motion connection to allow thestop element to remain in said position until the pawl approachesclosely to the end of itsback-up movement andmeans for preventingrebound of the-conveyor stop member from the stop element.

6. A stacker comprising two parallel shafts, a conveyor dial driven byone of the shafts and adapted to support racks which receive articlesejected from a machine which produces them, means for'driving the othershaft, a ratchet connected with the conveyor shaft, a lever, a pawlpivotally supported by the lever,-spring means" urging the pawl intocontact with the ratchet, a cam follower carried by the lever, a camconnected with the driving shaft and engageable with the follower andcontoured to move the pawl back along the ratchet to a ratchet-toothengaglng position and then to move away from the path of movement of thefollower, a spring connected with the lever, said spring bein stressedduring back-up movement of the pawl and being released when the camleaves the follower to,

cause the pawl to rotate the ratchet, a series of equally spaced stopsprojecting from the dial, a lever mounted for movement into and out ofthe path of movement of a stop, means for transmitting movement from thefirst lever to the second lever to cause the latter to move into thepath of movement of a stop as the pawl closely approaches the end of itsratchet-turning movement and to cause the second lever to be retraced.from the stop as the pawl closely approaches the end of its back-upmovement, a third lever mounted for movement into and out of the path ofmovement of a conveyor stop and a spring which urges the third leverinto the path of movement of the conveyor stop, said third leverpresenting to the conveyor stop a surface which the conveyor stopengages to cam the third lever away from its path of movement, saidsurface having length such that the stop leaves the surface as the stopstrikes the second lever whereupon the spring last mentioned returns thethird lever to normal position, said third lever having a surface which,when said lever is in normal position, is presented to the conveyor stopon the side thereof opposite to the side of the conveyor stop whichengages the second lever.

JAMES S. BURGE.

RICHARD M. GOODWIN. HILTON J. MCKEE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 2,181,356 Chipman Nov. 28, 1939 2,350,273 Decker May 30, 19442,498,850 Corser Feb. 28, 1950 2,539,809 Buckley Jan. 30, 1951

